🇺🇸 Double Shot of Badass Americans: William J. Crawford He was a janitor at the Air Force Academy for many years. The cadets who passed him every day had no idea they were walking among a living legend. Born in Pueblo, Colorado in 1918, Crawford was drafted into the Army in July 1942. By September 1943 he was serving as a Private and squad scout with Company I, 3rd Platoon, 142nd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division in southern Italy. On September 13, 1943, his platoon attacked German positions on Hill 424 near Altavilla. After reaching the crest, they were immediately pinned down by machine gun and small arms fire from multiple enemy positions. Without orders and completely on his own, Crawford moved forward alone under heavy fire. He first located one machine gun dug in on a terrace directly in front of the platoon. He crawled through open ground under fire, closed to within a few yards of the emplacement, destroyed the gun with a hand grenade, and killed three of the crew. He kept going. Crawford spotted a second machine gun position firing on his men. Again moving alone and exposed, he advanced on the crew under fire. When he got close enough, he threw a grenade, destroyed the gun, and eliminated the crew. He still wasn't finished. He located a third German machine gun that was continuing to pin down his unit. Once more he advanced alone through enemy fire, closed on the position, killed one of the Germans with rifle fire. Two other Germans who were there fled. Crawford, the badass he was, grabbed the German machine gun, turned it around, and fired on them as they were running down the hill. Crawford had single handedly taken out all three machine gun nests that were holding up his entire platoon. A few days later he was captured by the Germans. His fellow soldiers thought he had been killed. He would spend the next 19 months as a prisoner of war. Because the Army believed he was KIA, the Medal of Honor for his actions was awarded posthumously and presented to his father in 1944. When the war ended and Crawford was returned home, he had technically already received the nation’s highest award, but he was never formally presented with it. He would stay in the military until the 1960's, retiring as a Master Sergeant. He then took a quiet job as a janitor at the U.S. Air Force Academy. For many years he mopped floors and cleaned the cadet squadrons without ever mentioning his service. Thousands of cadets passed by him over the years without the slightest clue. Then, in the late 1970s, a cadet was reading a book about the Allied campaign in Italy and stumbled upon his name. He asked the janitor about it. Crawford simply replied, “That was one day in my life and it happened a long time ago.” They were shocked to find out their janitor was that same person. The cadets spread the word and helped arrange for him to have the recognition he deserved. On May 30, 1984, nearly 41 years after his actions, President Reagan personally awarded Master Sergeant William J. Crawford his Medal of Honor during the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. William J. Crawford is an American Badass 🇺🇸

Heavenly Father, We lift up the crew of the B-52 and all who loved them. Surround them with Your mercy, Your strength, and Your peace that surpasses all understanding. For those who serve beside them, grant courage in the face of sorrow, steadfastness in duty, and comfort in the bonds of friendship and service. For their families and friends, hold them close in the shelter of Your love. Ease their grief, quiet their fears, and remind them that they do not walk this road alone. We pray for their squadronmates, commanders, and fellow airmen who carry on the mission while bearing the weight of loss. Give them wisdom, resilience, and the support of one another as they honor their brothers and sisters in arms. Lord, receive those who have gone before us into Your eternal care. May perpetual light shine upon them, and may their service, sacrifice, and memory never be forgotten. Grant all who mourn the promise of hope, the comfort of faith, and the assurance that love endures beyond this life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. 🇺🇸✝️🙏🏼 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” — Psalm 34:18

‼️ Official release regarding today's B-52 crash at Edwards. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and unit members at this time. More information will be released as it becomes available.

Key West, Florida Old Post Office (1891)

Did you know there are a bunch of wooden pilots hidden in the woods around the Clermont County Airport outside of Cincinnati? Know you do.

Today we remember 1976 F1 World Champion James Hunt who passed away, on this day, 1993. He was just 45. tinyurl.com/HeskethRacing-Sh… #jameshunt #heskethracing #legend #f1 #formula1

Union Pacific 4014 and RBM&N 2102 pace each other as they approach the crossing at Penebscot in Mountaintop, PA, before making the descent down the grade to the Wilkes Barre / Pittston area. Occurred around noon on June 14, 2026.

The Northrop P-61 Black Widow - America's first purpose-built night fighter.

Never let the suits decide things. Some suit had the idea to destroy one of the greatest stadiums to ever host football games

First time this summer the 3:00 PM Thunderstorm pattern is setting in. Seabreeze comes inshore and voila, thunder storms….now if they could just move a bit east…

That green is the only thing keeping her standing. The Statue of Liberty's skin is copper barely 2.4mm thick, thinner than two stacked pennies. When it went up in 1886 it was the brown of a fresh penny. Oxygen and moisture hit the bare copper first and grew a thin red layer of cuprite underneath. Then New York did the rest. Coal smoke filled the air with sulfur dioxide, the harbor added chloride, and rain washed both onto the metal. The copper fed on the sulfur to build brochantite, the green copper-sulfate mineral that makes up most of what you see today. That green crust seals the copper off from the air. Once it covered the surface, around 1906, the corrosion that created it slowed almost to a stop. Across a full century the skin has worn down by about five thousandths of an inch. When crews restored the statue for its 100th birthday, the copper body was one of the only parts they didn't replace. They rebuilt the torch and left the skin alone. This is why the Park Service keeps refusing to polish it. Strip the green and you scrape off the protective layer and restart the whole reaction on bare metal that's already paper-thin. The brown statue was the fragile one. The green one built its own armor.

The International Moth is a development sailing class known for decades of innovation and its ability to hydrofoil above the water.

Navy aggressors over Key West. Photo: Peter Scheu

A rare, deep-sea goblin shark has been studied alive in its habitat for the first time, according to new research. Previously, the sharks had only been filmed and reported alive after being hooked on a fishing line and hauled to the surface

old florida: bathhouse at the main spring pool of de leon springs...

Multi Planetary. What a future

Mel Brooks on how he got the idea to make "History of the World: Part I" (1981): "I was walking across the parking lot at 20th Century-Fox on my way to my office when one of the grips who had worked on ''High Anxiety'' (1977) shouted to me from the back of a moving truck. ''Hey, Mel, what's next? Planning a big one?'' From out of the blue the biggest title I could think of popped into my mind: ''Yes, the biggest movie ever made. It's called 'History of the World.' '' Someone else on the truck yelled: ''How can you cover the whole world in one movie?'' ''You're right,'' I shouted. ''Maybe I'll call it 'History of the World - Part I.' '' Actually, if truth be told, I hadn't a clue as to what I was going to do next. That was two years ago, but now - this Friday - ''History of the World - Part I'' opens. (...) Will there be a ''History of the World - Part 2''? No. Maybe a ''Part 4,'' never a ''Part 2.''" ("The World According to Mel Brooks", Mel Brooks, The NY Times, 1981) P.S: On this day, 45 years ago, "History of the World: Part I" (1981) was released in the USA.

Here is what everyone misses on this story. Awesome work by Elon and the team. They took risks, stayed true to the vision worked tirelessly and overcame incredibly failures. But two things: 1. This is just the first phase. SpaceX and the Elon companies (i.e. xAI) will continue to grow, innovate and change the way we live for the better. This helps ensure that outcome 2. Literally anyone else can do this if they do the same as Elon. Maybe Boom Aero changes the way we travel, or Rocketlabs gets scale manufacturing going in Orbit…or literally any of a hundred different efforts - our inventors, entrepreneurs and believers in the human race will continue to bring us into a golden age for humanity. I am excited for my children’s future and just wish I could be around 50 years from now to see where this takes us.

View from onboard the beached battleship Nevada the day after the Pearl Harbor attack